I was super excited about starting out the school year with this project with the 5th grade students. I really love radial symmetry and I enjoy teaching it so was quite pleased when the 5th grade students seemed just as into it as I was.

To do this project, you begin with large square pieces of paper. Fold in half, corner to corner. Fold in half again, corner to corner, then one more time. After you've folded it three times, you have a triangle. On that triangle, you write your name in large bubble letters to fill the entire space. Then you open the square back up partially and using a light table or sunlight on a window, trace the name drawing. You continue to do this over and over until all of one side is filled with your name flipped and mirrored. This creates a beautiful radial symmetry name mandala.

This project was mostly for an introduction to my art class and to learn their names, but we took a bit of time to discuss radial symmetry and how to create bold bubble letters.

After the names are all written with a Sharpie, the students painted in the 'background' with acrylic paint and then added color in the letters with colored pencils. They were limited to four colors.

The results are amazing. Each and every single name mandala turned out great. It is really cool to put two different students with the same name next to each other. There are two Isaac's, two Taylor's. Even though they wrote the same name, they turned out totally different.